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US and Mexico Directors of Viva La Milpa Project

Mexico Director and Exhibit Steward, Sofia Olhovich

SofiaOlhovichstudied ethnologyat the National Schoolof Anthropologyand History; she worked forthe project called “AMillionTons ofCorn”in 1998in theRuralDevelopment Research Promotor Comittee (NGO); she is a founding member ofGubiñaXXI, A.C.(NGO) since 2001,whereshe studiedthe methodsofproduction and marketing ofnative corn in southernIsthmus ofTehuantepec;since 2006works at LaCasa delPanPapalotlinMexicoCity andsince 2011inSanCristobalde las Casas City, in Chiapas, promotingfair trade,organic food productionand responsible consumption,local and national. She collaborates at Red en Defensa del Maiz (Corn Defense Network), at the national social movement Sin Maiz No Hay País (Without Corn there is no country) and since 2012is responsible forthe receiptand dissemination in Mexico of thetravelingart exhibitionViva LaMilpa Project.

Founder and US Director,

Chula Gemignani

ART BACKGROUND (Traducción al español Abajo)

Chula (Linda) Gemignani received a Bachelors of Arts degree in Metalsmithing and Fine Art from San Fransisco State University in 1991. In her early career as a metal artist, her work was exhibited throughout California. She is a healer with a massage and therapy practice in California. Chula is an organic gardener, art activist and photographer.

FOOD BACKGROUND

In 1998 while living in West Marin, California life threw it’s curve balls and a car accident led to big life changes for Chula. This is when she began growing food and exploring the culinary arts. In 1999 she moved to the Big Island of Hawaii where she owned a private chef/catering company.

FARMING BACKGROUND

Chula grew much of the food that she cooked with in her catering company. In 2001, after an inspiring volunteer position on an organic farm, she began the stewardship of 3 acres of raw jungle on Papaya Farms Road in Pahoa, Hawaii. There she created an off grid (solar/water catchment) sustainable farm, and supplied many home kitchens and restaurants with fresh organic greens. To her great disappointment the land she bought was adjacent to a GMO papaya field and she witnessed first hand what cross contamination can mean for a farm. Once bees from those fields pollinated her papaya flowers, her papaya trees were contaminated and were no longer organic but rather GMO! Papayas were one of her main food sources and she experienced first hand what it is to have your food sovereignty taken away.

MEXICO CALLS

It was also during this time that the film “Future of Food”was released. In seeing this film Chula’s heart ached at the prospects for Mexican farmers. Both her culinary and farming history created an outright visceral reaction to watching this film. Chula could feel Mexico’s land, crops and farmers on a deep level. It inspired a song that she wrote and on going support to do what she could via online activism to stand up for the rights of consumers and farmers.

HER ART TODAY

Upon a visit to Oaxaca, Mexico in July, Chula tapped back into her well of creativity and artistic skills that, to her surprise, are very much still alive. It is there that she created the piece “Viva La Milpa”. She used this image to decorate educational information on GMO contamination and she experienced first hand the power of activism through the medium of art. This one piece of art brought new awareness to hundreds of people! Chula is now an art activist, committed preserving and protecting the heirloom corn varieties of Mexico and inspiring artist to direct art pieces towards positive change.

THE OAXACA STORY

by Chula

This all started when I met the Aztec Goddess named Coatlicue. She stands in the museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. When I met her I was humbled by her power. She is amazing! She stands 8.9 feet tall. She is an Earth Goddess and so much more! A couple days later I was at Fridah Kahlo’s house admiring her “exvoto” art collection. Exvotos are small folkloric paintings that depict a scenario with a prayer of gratitude to the chosen saint who sits up in the corner of the painting. I believe that the size and themes of some of these exvotos greatly inﬂuenced Frida’s art as well as comforted her own healing process.

A few days later I headed to Oaxaca, Oaxaca. The state of Oaxaca is the cultural mecca of Mexico. There, I became an open channel as Coatlicue the earth Goddess began to move through me. I created a large linoleum cut print in honor of the revival and ongoing respect to the Milpa. The Milpa is a farm based on ancient agricultural methods of Maya peoples and other Mesoamerican peoples. Milpa agriculture produces the three sisters: maize, beans, and squash. The print depicts a scene of farmers working the milpa and the statue of Coatlicue. At the bottom, upon the body of an alligator (symbol of the land and perseverance) is a prayer to Coatlicue, thanking her for protecting our food from the “transgeneticos”

(I found that many in Mexico feel that Coatlicue is the Corn Goddess as well though you are not likely to ﬁnd that info online.

After creating this art I had the help of other amazingly talented Oaxaqueño artists from the RUFINO TAMAYO INSTITUTE of GRAPHIC ARTS, to poster it up all over the city. It was enthusiastically received by all. I gave large prints away to galleries, bookstores, restaurants, public ofﬁces, even the senoras and senoritas selling steamed corn on the streets received one. I made it clear that these pieces were not for sale and made a deal with the ones who received the art. If they would hang it up they could have it. To gift this work was so refreshing. Suddenly it was art that was valuable for what it said, it was not about what it was worth in terms of pesos or dollars. It was amazing to hear just how much support this project had and how many people were immediately on my side. The Milpa is recognized as an intrinsic part of life, even for the city folk of Oaxaca.

With the help of my Spanish teacher, who I met at the Instituto Cultura de Oaxaca, I made 200 smaller 8 1/2 x 11 sheets with the art on one side and the other side with statistics and facts and educational information on GMOs and the risks that they carry with them as well as advice on saving your seeds, trading seeds, which foods have GMO ingredients, etc.

I handed these out in plazas, farmers markets and in smaller pueblos (were they were crucially needed because that is where the Milpa is most threatened)